Interpersonal Communication

Despite a growing emphasis on relationship studies in interpersonal communication, serious attention to the conceptual meaning of relationship has been limited. The purpose of this volume is to explore the meaning and use of "relationship" in interpersonal communication studies. The contributors to this volume, representatives of related, but differing perspectives, outline definitional boundaries and conceptual implications of the term stemming from their particular ontological and epistemological approaches. This volume provides an engaging and provocative examination of "relationship" by seasoned writers who are committed to seeing the field with new eyes. As such, the book will be invaluable to scholars and researchers in the field.

Not only do men and women reflect different gender roles through communication, but they are also impacted by communication about gender, especially from the media. Issues of sexual harassment and political correctness have raised the subject of gender differences in communication to an unprecedented level of political importance, influencing our value systems along the way. This study examines the changes that have occurred between men and women and how the sexes relate to one another from social, political, and ethical perspectives. Payne argues that religious ideology is an important aspect of gendered development and that biological, psychological, social, and cultural phenomena also affect sex roles.

Within psychology, emotion is often treated as something private and personal. In contrast, this book tries to understand emotion from the 'outside' by examining the everyday social settings in which it operates. Three levels of social influence are considered in decreasing order of inclusiveness, starting with the surrounding culture and subculture, moving on to the more delimited organization or group, and finally focusing on the interpersonal setting. At all these levels, emotion is influenced by social factors and has an impact on the way social life proceeds. For example, there are no direct equivalents in many cultures for some of the particular forms of emotion experienced in Western societies, suggesting that not all aspects of emotion are universal or biologically determined. Further, our various social identifications and allegiances partly determine what is emotionally relevant in a situation and how we respond to ingroup and outgroup members' emotions. Finally, emotions are usually occasioned by things that other people say, do, or have done to them, and often change the way interaction with those others proceeds. The book provides a critical review of existing theory and research on these topics from a social psychological perspective, and develops its own distinctive approach by recontextualising emotion in an integrated cultural, organisational and relational world.